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RICHARD DEAN ANDERSON RULES OUT MACGYVER RETURN

Those bamboo planes and homemade lie-detector tests are just going to have to make themselves because, as far as Richard Dean Anderson is concerned, this is not a MacGyver-friendly world.

The actor who played the popular TV character in the series that ran from 1985-1992 believes there is too much technology for MacGyver to be relevant today.

"Part of the reason I'm not interested in starting it (MacGyver) up again is that there is so much technology today that every human being on the face of this side of the planet anyway has got a cell phone," Anderson told AAP in Sydney.

"So for MacGyver to probably not have one and have to fashion one is kind of iffy. He's a smart guy, he'd be smart enough to have a cell phone."

The other character Richard Dean Andersonmade famous was Colonel Jack O'Neill in thescience fiction show Stargate.

But there is one exception to that rule: if his character was made to reflect Anderson's current image, he might consider getting back to the makeshift bombs and hot-air balloons.

"If I'm going to play MacGyver, you have to play up the facts that are obvious: he's older, he's got greying hair, he's overweight by 20 pounds ... and also slower and maybe a little more clumsy," Anderson said.

"These are all things I want to put into the MacGyver of today because time marches on. Not only that but as an actor, that would be fun to play."

It might be hard to believe but all of MacGyver's seemingly impossible inventions were tested and were completely viable.

"Almost everything MacGyver did was possible; we researched virtually every MacGyverism," Anderson said.

As the show continued, things got a bit more farcical.

"As time marched on and we became more popular, and knew we were going to have some legs as a series, that's when the fun kicked in - the real hardcore fun - because some of the things that we would toy with were just absolutely absurd.

"I would show up on set and start reading the day's work and you'd hear me saying, 'Are you kidding me?'"

But for every crazy invention, one more viewer was inspired.

"The audience, the mainstay of the fans, were families with kids. I've had men and women come up to me saying that they got into their scientific field because of MacGyver," he said.

The other character Anderson made famous was Colonel Jack O'Neill in the science fiction show Stargate.

The actor eventually walked away from that role to spend more time with his daughter Wylie.

But as Wylie now approaches college age, Anderson is edging closer to a return to acting.

"The time is coming where I'm going to send her off out of the nest and let her go to school and basically start her new life without me," he said.

"After that time, I think I'll feel a lot more comfortable about taking on a job that might take me out of the country, or have me inundated with work for long periods of time."